Arthur Laurents Set for Pearl Theater’s Summer Reading Series

Legendary playwright and director Arthur Laurents will be one of the special guest speakers in the Pearl Theater Company’s America: The Reading Series, to be held this summer at Theatre 80. Laurents will speak after a reading of his 1945 play Home of the Brave at 7pm on Monday, September 11. No other speakers have been confirmed.

The series will begin on Monday, June 26 with William Dunlap’s 1798 play André, a verse drama based on a spying incident during the War of Independence. That will be followed by The Octaroon, Dion Bouccicault’s popular 1859 melodrama about slavery (July 24), Rip Van Winkle (August 7), and William Vaughn Moody’s 1906 drama The Great Divide. All shows will begin at 7pm and include post-show discussions.

Laurents’ other plays include The Bird Cage, The Time of the Cuckoo, and 2 Lives. He is the librettist for the musicals West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, and Do I Hear A Waltz? Among his directorial credits are the 1974 and 1989 Broadway revivals of Gypsy and the original Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles.

The Pearl’s 23rd season will include George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, Moliere’s The School for Wives, Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic, William Saroyan’s The Cave Dwellers, and S.N. Behrman’s Biography.